KJ’s Mobile Phone Reviews – Nokia N8 Review and Price

With a wide range of new smartphones arriving from Google, Samsung and of course the Apple iPhone, Nokia have faced levels of anxiety, pressure and burden in recent years to keep up with the hyper-competitive industry of mobile phones.

After having a sit back and think, Nokia have brought out the new Nokia N8. With the latest operating system and a big list of features along with a techno stimulating look, will the Nokia N8 get them back in the race?

Mentioning the model back in April, Nokia have delayed it’s release to ensure that the users of this dynamic model enjoy their experience as much as possible.

It has to be the one though, since most manufacturers normally release the phone weeks after the press release. Nokia fans have been waiting for over 6 months for this one.

The original software has been improved and Symbian^3 improves on the previous iterations of the OS seen on the likes of the Nokia X6 16GB and the Nokia 5800, but adds in multiple home screens, widgets and an improved UI.

In terms of the actual hardware, Nokia has pressed the boat out too with the new N8, contributing a full metal chassis with anodised scratch-proof paint to give the phone a really high end feel.

It actually is scratch-proof – rubbing keys on it produced no ill-effects, however, the slider switch on the side seems like the paint can rub off.

With a Xenon flash bolted on the back and a 12 Mega Pixel Camera, it’s not an ultra -slim device – it fits in the hand well enough but the dimensions 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm aren’t going to rival the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S i9100 and the Apple iPhone 4, especially when being forced into more tightly fitting trousers.

No Removable Battery – The Nokia N8 has no removable back and battery, so you won’t be able to carry a spare battery around just in case it dies out. You can retrieve the IMEI number from the top of the handset.

On the side, Nokia has put two hinged gates on the side, allowing access to the microSD card slot and the SIM card port – both are quite tedious to pull open and clicking cards in can be tricky too without long fingernails. Bear in mind, you are hardly going to opene these ports.

The remaining of the Nokia N8 continues the higher-end feel: the 3.5-inch capacitive OLED screen really pops with colour (although doesn’t quite match the impressive sharpness of Samsung’s Super AMOLED) and the minimalistic design sees only one rather functional-looking button on the front, eschewing the extra soft keys Nokia has implemented for so many years.

The right-hand side of the phone holds the the camera key, which has surpirsed press levels to allow you to only push it down partially for autofocus. There’s also a volume key with raised buttons, although these are quite far away from each other, so can be awkward to hit when you’re not looking and trying to work out which one you’re pressing.

If you prefer physcial locking, there is a slider switch on this side of the Nokia N8. I prefer this, since it is is more natural and similar to the side switch on a TV e.t.c

The top of the N8 is probably the most exciting part – there’s a mini HD port, the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power switch, which is also used to quickly change profiles when enjoying through the N8′s interface.

The bottom houses the charger port – and it’s a standard 2mm ‘new Nokia charger’ port, which initially seems like an odd choice when you can also charge through the microUSB port too, like all other phones, even when connected to a PC.

The Nokia N8 sits quite comfortably in the hand and the ports are not in the way as such. Overall I would give it a 7/10 and would definitley recommend having a go.

So where is the cheapest place to buy a second hand Nokia N8?

Well, if you fancy taking one of these, the price for a refurbished Nokia N8 is currently £200.00 on including VAT on the ineedamobile.com website. New ones range from £349.99+ from the likes of Expansys and Affordable Mobiles e.t.c